Jerry Groopman MD reviews Frank Vertosick’s Why We Hurt: the natural history of pain. “In 1979, while training for the

Boston marathon, I ruptured a

lumbar disc. I underwent two

failed operations and was left

disabled and in severe pain. It

took many months of arduous

physical therapy to be weaned

from pain medication and to

regain the ability to move about.

To this day, if I lift something

heavy without bending correctly,

or fail to support my muscles

when sitting in a soft chair, I am

laid low by back pain. It was,

therefore, with more than

academic interest, and some

trepidation, that I read ‘Why We

Hurt. To my surprise and delight,

Dr. Frank T. Vertosick Jr., a practicing neurosurgeon,

performs a feat of literary alchemy. He transmutes the

lugubrious subject of pain into a provocative and edifying

treatise that tightly engages the reader.” New York Times